Off Beat - Science, Physics of sound
Posted on May 16, 2008
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Good Sabbath, everyone
Denmark and Germany to ban crosses in schools and courts
Posted on May 15, 2008
Filed Under EU, Islam in Europe, Media, News, Religion, Stupidity | Leave a Comment
This is how Denmark and Germany surrender their original religious values - the values heir societies were built upon - all in the name of multiculturalism.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s government said Wednesday it will prepare legislation that would bar judges from wearing Islamic head scarves and religious symbols in court.
While the law would also ban crucifixes, Jewish skull caps and turbans, it highlights ongoing debate over Islamic traditions in Denmark, an issue that gained world attention in 2006 when Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad triggered violent protests in Muslim countries.
Although there are no known cases of a judge in Denmark wearing a traditional Muslim head scarf known as a hijab, Justice Minister Lene Espersen said the law was needed because judges “must appear neutral and impartial” in court.
A law which prohibits Muslim women teachers from wearing headscarves in a German state’s public schools also forbids Catholic nuns from wearing their veils in regular classrooms, judges said Wednesday
The administrative tribunal of Baden-Wuerttemberg state set out the position in a detailed written judgment, two months after ruling verbally that a woman convert to Islam, aged 58 at the time, could not teach in her scarf.
The teacher converted to Islam in 1984 and began wearing a headscarf during class in 1995. The southwestern state has a law that bans “exterior expressions of religious confession.”
The so-called “headscarf debate” is a long-raging one in Germany, home to more than 3 million Muslims, most of Turkish origin. Many consider the headscarf a form of oppression against women and say immigrants who want to live here harmoniously must accept certain Western values and play by German rules.
Others say forbidding it amounts to discriminating against Islam and that Germans should learn to accept other cultures and traditions.
I wonder, how will the judges and school principals act once a judge or a teacher, wearing a small cross on his/her neck, enters the premises and refuses to remove it. And how does it all fall in the frames of the “freedom of religions”?
By issuing such laws, European countries achieve nothing but creating a breeding ground for future disasters to come. The original citizens of Europe may now be silent, but it looks like this situation will not remain forever.
The first glimpse of where it’s all going we got after France, Switzerland and Italy voted for right wing parties who promised to impose a tougher laws on immigration. This should serve as a warning sign to the European pseudo-liberal suicidal establishment. Next time the Europeans will vote for those who are going to propose a direct actions against certain groups in the European society, and then, all of them will end up in the situation nobody currently wants be in.
Changes
Posted on May 14, 2008
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World Divided is expanding. One of the major parts of this website will be the new “Economy” section, covering interesting developments in economy and business of the Middle East and Africa.
Worldivided.com will remain a place where political issues and related controversies will continue receiving their fair share of diplomatic (and sometimes not so diplomatic) bashing, but it will be completed with “Economy” section.
In addition, WD will have a slight facelift. New design, not much different than the current one, but more effective and appealing.
We hope you like the new changes. We’re in the process of implementing them.
Stay tuned.
Victim of terrorist act? Follow the money.
Posted on May 13, 2008
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And you’ll get to surprising, or maybe not so surprising sources.
NEW YORK - Several American victims of terrorist attacks in Israel are demanding more than $500 million in compensation from a Swiss bank.
The plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit say that UBS AG provided cash to Iran that made it possible for the country to fund terrorism. The lawsuit says UBS knew the money would be used to carry out terrorist attacks.
UBS did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan. It notes that the Federal Reserve fined UBS $100 million in 2004 for violating trade sanctions by sending dollars to Iran and other countries.
Leopard doesn’t change its spots, does it? During the WW2 Swiss bankers cooperated with the German Nazis, now with the Iranian Islamonazis…and after all this, Switzerland is offended for not being invited for Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
Repots from Lebanon - Iranians involved in fighting
Posted on May 13, 2008
Filed Under Middle East, News, Politics, Terrorism | 1 Comment
Two unrelated and independent sources report that Iranian citizens are taking an active part in assisting Hizbollah in its recent assault on Lebanon
Lebanese Minister Ahmad Fatfat said earlier today that the Iranian ambassador in Beirut was one of those involved in the direct coordination of Hizbollah’s actions.
American political commentator and blogger Debbie Shlussel reports that according to her sources in Lebanon, Iranian citizens were actually caught fighting alongside Hizbollah
Although Hezbollah has retreated–by its own choice (and it could easily return and retake)–from Beirut, the Iranian/Syrian-backed, Lebanese terrorist group is fighting in the surrounding hills.
My exclusive Lebanese Intelligence sources tell me that a number of Hezbollah terrorist fighters have been caught, over the weekend, and they cannot speak Arabic, only Farsi. They are Iranian and have identified themselves or been identified by third parties as members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
To those who are closely familiar with regional details and dynamics, these news come unsurprising. The presence of the members of Iranian Revolutionary Guard, acting as instructors in training the Hizhbollah terrorists and assisting them in building their own independent infrastructures is a well known secret.
Iran is the one who is directly responsible for enabling Hezbollah to build a state within a state, using Syria - its roads and sea ports - as a mere transportation hub for the equipment, weapons and explosives shipped to Hizbollah.
Earlier this week Security news portal Debka reported that Hizbollah received 35 new Iranian speedboats, just before the recent crisis erupted.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that three weeks before Hizballah seized western Beirut, the Shiite terrorist group took delivery of 35 fast speedboats for use with explosives from Iran. The craft can threaten US Sixth Fleet and Israel Navy shipping close to Lebanese shores, reach Israel’s Haifa and Ashdod Mediterranean ports and raid its coastal oil installations.
The speedboats were tailor-made for Hizballah by Iranian Revolutionary Guards shipyards at Bandar Abbas as the only marine terror fleet operating in Mediterranean waters. Our military sources report the boats are capable of carrying chemical, biological and radiological weapons systems.
They were delivered in mid-April by an Iranian freighter at the Syrian port of Latakia and trucked to Naimah port south of Beirut. There they were hidden in the subterranean hangars belonging to Ahmed Jibril, head of the Palestinian Liberation Front-General Command. Today, the PLF-GC is financed and directed by the Revolutionary Guards. The hangars were constructed in the seventies by East Germany engineers with a protected Mediterranean anchorage and made virtually impenetrable by sea or air.
Recent from Iran - curses, losses and false hopes
Posted on May 12, 2008
Filed Under Economy, Media, Middle East, Multiculturalism, News, Politics | Leave a Comment
While the new Hitler, or his smaller and modified Shiite version, arises in Iran, Europe, so it appears, haven’t learnt anything from its experience pre-WW2. It continues issuing condemnations
Brussels: The EU presidency on Friday condemned “in the strongest possible terms” anti-Israeli remarks made by Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called the state of Israel “a stinking corpse”.
Ahmadinejad’s comments, delivered on Thursday, “are unacceptable, damaging and uncivilized,” the European Union’s Slovenian presidency said in a statement.
And while EU is still harbored at “condemnation” bay, two significant developments take place vs Iran: Russia joins the UN sanctions against Iran
The UN Security Council imposed a third round of sanctions on Iran on March 3 for refusing to suspend sensitive nuclear activities.
The Russian decree, signed by Vladimir Putin before he left office, calls for restrictions on travel and financial transactions with certain Iranian individuals and companies.
…and Shell bails out of a major deal with Iran following the pressure of US lawmakers
A spokeswoman said on Saturday that the world’s second-largest non government-controlled oil company by market capitalisation was pulling out of Phase 13 of the giant South Pars gas field but may yet join later stages of the field’s development.
Shell, Spain’s Repsol and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2002 to develop Phase 13 in a project to be known as Persian LNG.
The condemnations and the sanctions are viewed by Iran as useless piece of paper, but it cannot overlook the significance of the latest move by Shell. It also seems that Iran realized that Shell’s move is only the first in the string of many, and this is why this radical Shiite state decided to try and go solo with oil exploration
At this huge oil field in southwest Iran, one building stands out among the pumps and maze of pipelines: On its roof in giant letters, big enough for satellites or pilots to see, are the words: “We can do it.”
The slogan, made famous by Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, highlights the country’s new drive to tap its oil riches on its own - without Western investment or technological know-how - as Iran faces a threat of tighter UN sanctions and American financial pressure over its nuclear ambitions.
The Azadegan field in southwestern Iran showcases the bid: the first major field to be developed solely by Iranian companies. Pumping began in February in the vast oil basin - off limits to the public, but The Associated Press received permission to tour the site recently with a government escort.
The self-sufficiency drive has become a vital test of how well Iran can ride out more Western sanctions - and possibly rake in billions of dollars more in oil revenues as prices hit record highs. It also is shaping up as a political gamble for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the main proponent of using local firms.
Some lawmakers and outside experts contend that Iranian companies will take longer and get less oil than foreign investors with better technology and project management.
By the time Iran manages to develop this source, two things are likely to happen:
Iran will be under full set of harsh sanctions, which will significantly limit its oil trade capacities;
US and its allies are likely to exercise a prevention strike against Iran, damaging its key energy sources and installations, crippling Iranian economy even further;
How these events will develop - no one can tell, since Iran is probably the most unpredictable country in the world today. But when it comes to “stinking corpse”, as ahmadinejad called Israel, it is certain that Iran is much closer to this biological state, than Israel was, is and will ever be.
Pioneering Electric Car Network
Posted on May 11, 2008
Filed Under Economy, Environment, Israel, News | Leave a Comment
In January this year WD reported about the innovative project, initiated by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, with the help of private investment group and Israeli government, to install the world’s first electric car network in Israel by 2011.
The initiative called “Project Better Place” today presented the first prototype for the electric car. In addition, the venture released a survey according to which 1 in 6 Israelis would buy such car.
via Globes
Project Better Place today presented its prototype electric car, using the Renault Megane. The venture is owned by CEO Shai Agassi, and Israel Corp. (TASE: ILCO) is a major investor.
While in many ways the vehicle looks similar to gas-powered cars, the Renault Megane’s engine includes an electric battery, and the car notably does not need an exhaust pipe.Project Better Place noted that the presentation model was a prototype - whose battery is an improvisation made by a local electrician - and not a production model.
Agassi said that a few electric cars would arrive in Israel in a few months, but added that it would only be available for sale after the necessary infrastructure is in place. The list price of the electric car will probably be similar to the gasoline-driven model of the same car. However, the actual price tag will be less thanks to tax breaks.
To persuade the public about its seriousness, Project Better Place commissioned a survey, in which one in every six Israelis said that they would buy an electric car. The survey added that the public believes that there is strong market demand for it. Project Better Place added that half of the respondents said that switching to an electric car would be easy or very easy.
Shai Agassi reiterated his pledge to make Israel an electric car pioneer. Denmark, which has already declared its willingness to adopt the car, will follow. Israel Corp. chairman Idan Ofer said, “I consider this to be a revolutionary project and I believe that most of the public will drive an electric car within a decade.” Ofer has invested $130 million in the venture personally and through Israel Corp.
That’s how you move from talking and whining about the danger of global warming to concrete solutions - combining the skill, the capital and the good will of an individual, a company and a government.
The video by CNBC of the prototype demo here
